Glossary · Cider
Sidra natural
Spanish. Kept in its own language here rather than translated into the nearest English word, because the nearest English word is usually cut on a different axis.
Definition
Asturian and Basque cider fermented to complete dryness from pure juice, unfiltered, uncarbonated and bottled without added gas or sugar. It is poured from a height to raise a momentary foam.
- Subject
- Cider
- Language
- Spanish
In more detail
The style is defined by what is left out. There is no added sugar, no injected carbon dioxide, no filtration to brightness and, traditionally, no sulphite at bottling. Fermentation is spontaneous and usually completed by a malolactic conversion, which softens the very high malic acid of Asturian fruit into lactic acid and leaves the characteristic lactic and farmyard notes.
The residual dissolved gas is slight, so the drink is flat in the glass unless it is aerated. That is the function of escanciar: a long pour breaks the surface, releases volatiles and lifts the acid for a few seconds, after which the pour is drunk and the rest discarded.
Sidra natural is protected in Asturias under a DOP and in the Basque Country under Euskal Sagardoa, each with its own permitted variety list and production rules.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Style
Sidra natural
The still, dry, unfiltered cider of Asturias and the Basque Country, wild-fermented from local high-acid fruit and poured from a height to raise a momentary sparkle.
Region
Asturias
The largest cider culture in Spain and one of the most distinctive anywhere: dry, still, unfiltered *sidra natural*, fully through malolactic fermentation, poured from a height into a wide glass and drunk a mouthful at a time.
Production
Malolactic fermentation
A bacterial conversion of sharp malic acid into softer lactic acid, which lowers acidity, changes aroma, and in most traditional cider happens whether it was planned or not.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Serving
Escanciar
The Asturian pour: the bottle held high overhead and the glass low at the hip, so that a thin stream falls a metre or more and breaks on the rim of the tilted glass.
Serving
Culete
The measure poured at one time in an Asturian cider house and drunk straight down. The regulating council puts it at not less than 100 millilitres, and six to the bottle.
Serving
Espalme
The rapid and complete *disappearance* of the foam raised in the glass by the pour. Not the foam itself — its collapse.
Culture
Llagar
An Asturian cider house: the press, the cellar of chestnut vats, and the room where the new cider is tasted and sold. The word means both the press itself and the building around it.
Culture
Sagardoa
The Basque word for cider. It is usually parsed as *sagar* (apple) and *ardo* (wine) — apple wine — and the drink is central to Basque food culture.
Culture
Espicha
An Asturian cider gathering held at a *llagar*, at which cider is drawn straight from the vat and eaten with standing food — traditionally the occasion at which the new season’s cider is judged.
Culture
Chigre
An Asturian cider bar, where *sidra natural* is poured by the bottle and shared, with a *culete* served at a time and the drip tray running constantly.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
Denominación de Origen Protegida Sidra de Asturias
Consejo Regulador de la DOP Sidra de Asturias · designation authority · passage verified 2026-08-24
The regulating council for Asturian cider. Read on 2026-08-24, and it turned out to carry far more than a permitted-variety list: an agronomic and technological characterisation of each admitted variety, with total acidity, total polyphenols, vigour, flowering, ripening, cropping and susceptibility to fungal disease. The characterisation is credited to SERIDA’s fruit-research programme. Two things it settles are corrections to what CiderHQ previously held: Asturias sorts cider fruit into nine technological blocks rather than five, and it publishes acidity as sulphuric acid rather than malic. The figures are transcribed into `data/trials/serida-asturias.ts` and cite this source, because this is where they were read.
Servicio Regional de Investigación y Desarrollo Agroalimentario (SERIDA)
Principado de Asturias · research institute · retrieved 2026-08-24
The Asturian regional agri-food research service, and the technical authority behind the Asturian cultivar classification and the analysis of sidra natural. SERIDA’s own site has not been opened; what CiderHQ has read is SERIDA’s varietal characterisation as republished by the Consejo Regulador of DOP Sidra de Asturias, which credits it explicitly. The Asturian measurements therefore cite the Consejo rather than SERIDA — citing the body that did the work, at a document CiderHQ has not seen, would be exactly the kind of borrowed authority this register exists to prevent.
Euskal Sagardoa / Sidra Natural del País Vasco protected designation
Eusko Label / Basque Government · designation authority · registered as competent for this subject